Higgins Honored as Softball Splits with WBU on Senior Day to End Season

GOODWELL, Okla. — The Oklahoma Panhandle State softball team (10-40, 8-28 SAC) finished its 2026 season Saturday at Jim Quimby Field with a pair of one-run games against Wayland Baptist (27-21, 17-19), where it won 6-5 in the doubleheader opener before losing the Senior Day finale, 4-3.
 
Game 1: Wayland capitalized on an early defensive miscue with an RBI single in the first to take a 1-0 lead.
 
It took just two plate appearances for the Aggies to tie it, as Aaliyah Dang-Gutierrez' single, with the help of a Pioneer error, scored Summer Marron. OPSU tacked on with base hits from Haeley Vasquez and Marin Jacobs, along with a double steal executed by Vasquez and Gutierrez. Jacobs' RBI single made it 3-1, Aggies, after one inning.
 
The Pioneers came back with a run in the second inning and another in the fourth to tie things at 3-3, but the Panhandle State defense got two critical outs at home plate to end both the third and fourth frames, preserving the tie.
 
OPSU's offense retook the lead with a one-out rally in the bottom of the fourth. Flora Moreno sparked the surge with a walk, Reighley Wilkerson followed with a double to right-center, and Marron singled in a run before the Aggies claimed a 5-3 advantage on a wild pitch.
 
Jules Leach drove in a run on a groundout in the fifth to bring the score to 6-3, and, despite a seventh-inning scare, the hosts held on to win, 6-5.
 
Marin Jacobs (8-16) tossed a complete game allowing four earned runs in the win, as the junior ace finished her season with 20 complete games, 44 strikeouts and a 3.42 ERA in 145.1 innings pitched.
 
Game 2: Despite a strong performance from starting pitcher Jordan Johnson in the finale, the Aggie bats were unable to get enough going in a tight contest.
 
WBU plated two in the first inning on a two-out, two-run triple, and the visitors tacked on one apiece in the third and sixth innings to grab a 4-0 edge.
 
Aided by Pioneer errors, the Aggies stormed back in the bottom of the sixth with three runs, coming courtesy of three straight singles off the bats of Leach, Moreno and Wilkerson. Unfortunately, OPSU was unable to plate the tying run as the game ended, 4-3.
 
Johnson tossed all seven innings, allowing four earned runs, walking just one batter and picking up a strikeout.
 
Senior Day: Pregame, infielder Trinity Higgins, who has stolen 75 bases and scored 59 runs as an Aggie, was honored with a final trip around the bases as part of an emotional Senior Day Ceremony. Higgins' senior year was cut short after her first at-bat due to a lower body injury, but she earned the honorary start at second base Saturday, staying in for the first pitch. The Paducah, Kentucky, native and 2025 NFCA All-Region Player and SAC Newcomer of the Year finished her OPSU softball career with a .448 batting average, the highest of any player in program history with at least 150 at-bats.
 
What's up next: OPSU looks forward to a bounce-back 2027 season, as the program seeks to return its key contributors and add new talent in hopes of returning to the SAC Tournament next year.